Students create a print or digital magazine article to celebrate Canada's birthday. They communicate their explanation of historical perspectives and their description of a future vision of national identity for Canada.
Instructional Support
A number of possible tasks are provided in this suggested activity. It is not intended that you work through all of the tasks, but rather select those tasks and resources that will best meet the learning needs of your students. The focus should be on ensuring that students have the background and support to be successful with the skill that is the focus for assessment (communicate information).
Setting the Context for Learning
- To engage students in thinking about effective communication, ask them to:
- think of a magazine article that grabbed their attention and made them keep reading
- think of a magazine article that they quit reading almost immediately after they started.
- As a class, discuss the qualities of the articles that grabbed students' attention and the qualities of the articles that students were not interested in. Create a list of these qualities to post in the classroom for students to refer to as they complete their work in this suggested activity.
Communicate Information
- Based on student interest, select samples of a variety of magazine articles that use text and images. Engage in a discussion with students about which articles they think are most effective and why. You may wish to begin with some of the Suggested Supporting Resources for this activity, such as Canada Day: Rock Stars, Football and History Highlight Canada's 145th Birthday or the Canada Day Bio.
- With students, brainstorm a list of qualities of an effective article, such as the following:
- balances text, images and other elements
- uses tone and language appropriate to the audience
- provides succinct and relevant information
- engages the reader.
Students may generate other ideas for the list; add these ideas where appropriate.
- Share with students a piece of writing that has many spelling and grammatical errors. Ask students to brainstorm how these errors limit the effectiveness of communicating the author's ideas. Remind students that even though spelling and grammar are not emphasized in social studies, they still impact the effectiveness of the overall communication.
- Discuss with students the importance of presenting their ideas in a logical order to provide clarity for the reader. Remind students that organizing information is an important aspect of effective communication.
Formative Assessment
Throughout this suggested activity, you will support students in achieving the following skill that is the focus for assessment:
The following formative assessment opportunity is provided to help students unpack and develop the focus skill for assessment. Feedback prompts are also provided to help students enhance their demonstration of the focus skill for this activity. Formative assessment support is not intended to generate a grade or score.
Formative Assessment: Assessment for Learning Opportunity
Communicate Information
Involve students in peer coaching to provide and receive feedback on how effectively they have communicated their ideas. Use the feedback prompts below to provide structure in guiding students through this formative assessment opportunity.
Feedback Prompts:
- Is my information logically organized?
- Are my tone and language appropriate for my audience?
- Do I use specific words and phrases to make my writing interesting for the reader?
These feedback prompts can be posted on an interactive white board or bulletin board, or incorporated into a feedback tool that can be copied for student use. Samples of tools created for a similar skill within a different formative assessment context may be found in the Social Studies 20-4 Formative Assessment Summary 
.
Linking to the Summative Assessment Task
- As students communicate information through the suggested activity Sharing Your Vision, they will have completed the Summative Assessment Task: Visions of Canada's Past, Present and Future
.
- Students should consult the assessment task and the assessment task rubric to ensure that they have provided the information required.
- Encourage students to use feedback received through the formative assessment opportunity to make enhancements to their work in progress.
- If necessary, continue to use the feedback prompts from the formative assessment opportunity to coach students toward completion of a quality product.
- If student performance does not yet fall within the three levels described in the summative assessment task rubric, work with the student to formulate a plan to address the student's learning needs.
Suggested Supporting Resources
Textbook References
Student Basic Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Understanding Nationalism:
- Pages 290–295 Visions of Canada
- Pages 312–315 Canadian Identity
- Page 332 The Quest for Canadian Unity Show more
- Images:
- Figure 15-1, page 332 The Quest for Canadian Unity
- Figures 15-11 to 15-15, page 341 Picturing Issues Affecting National Unity
- Figure 16-1, page 356 Visions of National Identity
- Figures 16-16 to 16-20, pages 372–373 Picturing Canadian Identity
- Pages 356–358 Visions of National Identity
- Page 374 "I Am a Canadian" (excerpt from Duke Redbird's poem)
Teaching Resource—McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Understanding Nationalism:
- Reproducible 4.13.6 Visions of Canada
- Reproducible 4.13.10 Some Debates about Visions of Canada Today
- Reproducible 4.13.11 Analyzing the Debate StatementShow more
- Reproducible 4.14.1 Symbols of Canada
- Reproducible 4.14.2 Symbols, Myths, and National Identity
- Reproducible 4.14.4 Mock Canadian Citizenship Exam Selected Questions, 1997 and 2007
- Reproducible 4.14.7 Our Advertising Campaign
- Reproducible 4.14.8 Individuals Who Promote a National Identity
- Reproducible 4.14.9 Rethinking the 10 Greatest Canadians
- Reproducible 4.16.2 Visions of Canada
Web Resources
Web Links for Online Sources:
Knowledge and Employability Studio:
- Social Studies Background and Tools:
- Social Studies 20-4:
Videos:
Distributed Learning/Tools4Teachers Resources:
Critical Challenges:
